Page 106 of Fate and Fury

“Katerina,” Niko growled, and in that single word she heard the doom of everything she had ever loved and valued—except the man who stood beside her. The man for whom she’d been willing to sacrifice everything.

She had saved Niko, but at what cost? Gadreel was killing the villagers, because Katerina had left them. He had barreled through the Shadows and Dimis of Kalach, because Katerina had weakened them. This—everything that was happening—was her fault.

She was too late.

Eyes wide with horror, she watched the smoke drift over the treetops, toward the path where she and Niko stood. They had two choices now: run and pray to the Saints Gadreel didn’t find them. Or charge into the village, and risk everything she’d fought to prevent.

A demon, with her power at his disposal. Her Shadow, dragged down again into the Dark.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said desperately, her gaze searching the horizon. “Saints, tell me what to do!”

“Listen to me, Katya.” Niko took hold of her, his grip tight on her upper arms. “Remember the prophecy.”

Her eyes found his. “How could I forget? He’s killing them because of me, Niko. He’s burning Kalach?—”

“No.The Dark will fall,”he said, his gray eyes intent on her face. “The Shadow will rise.I’ve risen. I’ll fight with you. That’s our destiny: to go back, to stand against him. Not to run.”

All this time, they’d thought the prophecy meant a shadow would rise from the Darkness and devour Kalach. But instead it had meant her Shadow would rise from the dead.

What had Sammael said, when she’d summoned him into her circle?You humans and your foolish prophecies.He had always known that the prophecy was, as Niko had once calledit, nothing but words in a dusty book. The Saints had been oral storytellers; they’d dictated the prophecies to their scribes. And from that simple error—the lowercase ‘s’ in Shadow—had come a belief system that had governed generations.

For this, they had stoned Katerina and buried Niko in unconsecrated ground. For this, Dimi Zakharova had threatened to ruin her.

All for a misunderstanding and a misinterpretation. And now, it might be too late.

She refused to believe that.The Dark will fall. The Shadow will rise.Well, her Shadow was here, beside her once again. That part of the prophecy had been fulfilled. Now it lay to the two of them to defeat Gadreel, and all he stood for. To save Ana, and whoever else they could.

“We’ll fight him, then,” Katerina said, squaring her shoulders. “Together. It’s as you always said…if we die, we die together.”

“We won’t die,” Niko said. “I’m not sure I can. And I have no intention of letting him take you, alive or otherwise.”

He bared his teeth, and a growl reverberated up from his chest. The air around him vibrated and flickered, shot through with Light. When it cleared, the man was gone and a black dog stood in his place, strong and solid.

Katerina placed her hand on his back, his fur rough and warm against her palm. Inside her mind, he spoke.To the fight, then, Dimi mine.

“To the fight,” Katerina echoed. Her magic rose, coming easily to her call, the way it hadn’t since she’d lost him. It bubbled like lava inside the volcanoes far to the south, hungry to burst forth, eager to be used.

Together, she and Niko would destroy Gadreel and save their village. Together, they would put things right.

Katerina raced toward the tumult of Kalach under the unforgiving light of the Bone Moon, her magic cresting within her and her Shadow once more by her side.